Girlhood hauntings

I don't remember meeting her though I suppose I was only 2 years old. The first memory I have of us is with our mothers and girlfriend, running home through the forest before a rainstorm.

I still have her Gumby flip-flops but they're old and dirty now. Before she died, we'd walk to the mall and loiter out front, waiting for something to happen. After she died, it was like I was dead myself.

I wrote letters and stacked them up to the ceiling, stored them in shoe-boxes and addressed them to heaven. Places I thought were imaginary. The way grief teaches you about life is unmatched. I don't let it get to me these days.